Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to bacteriology and human pathology. More specifically, the present invention relates to a bacterium present in the human blood, the characterization, culturing and diagnostic methodologies therefor and the treatment of pathophysiological states caused by this bacterium.
Description of the Related Art
Infectious agents are a main cause of human disease and the leading cause of death worldwide. Bacterial infections are cause more deaths than any other class of infectious organisms. The single leading cause of death via infectious organisms worldwide remains tuberculosis, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis; however scores of diseases or disorders caused by infectious agents are present in both developed and undeveloped countries.
Examples of infectious disorders include chronic fatigue syndrome and conditions such as fibromyalgia. These disorders affect about 1,000,000 Americans. There is no known cause or effective treatment for these conditions, nor is there any definitive diagnostic laboratory test. Epidemiologic evidence suggests an infectious agent as the cause; however, no causative infectious agent has been identified.
Multiple sclerosis produces disability to variable degrees and occasional death in about 400,000 Americans. Multiple sclerosis is a disease of unknown cause and has considerable variability, with minimal disability in some patients and almost total disability in others. As with chronic fatigue syndrome, there is no definitive diagnostic laboratory test, and clinical diagnosis is based on a constellation of symptoms and tests. Epidemiologic data suggests that multiple sclerosis has an underlying infectious cause and that the infectious cause is acquired years prior to the development of symptoms.
Another loosely-defined group of diseases are those in the "autoimmune" category such as lupus erythematosis and rheumatoid arthritis. These relatively common diseases are often disabling and the underlying cause of these diseases is unknown. Rheumatoid arthritis is rarely fatal, but lupus erythematosis has a significant mortality rate. Laboratory diagnostic tests for these conditions are satisfactory, but no test is definitive, so a variety of tests in combination with the correlation of clinical symptoms is necessary. A variety of medications are available to control symptoms to some degree and slow progression of the diseases, but no treatment is curative. Certain antibiotics are currently accepted as one therapeutic option for rheumatoid arthritis, but no specific infectious cause has been demonstrated.
Thus, the prior art is deficient in the identification and characterization of the specific bacterium from human blood described herein, methods for culturing it and for diagnosing and treating diseases that result from an increase in the presence of the bacterium in an individual's blood. The present invention fulfills this long-standing need and desire in the art.